The Phrygian Cap

freemix rockin in dublin

d33p is my vj nickname
freemix running in ubuntu is my set

free software rockin in dublin
want to join?

0.2 coming soon (python + gstreamer + clutter)
stay tuned...

30,000 plays

tracks played in lastfm: 30,065

to put that in perspective... if the average track length is 5 minutes, that is:
150325 minutes
2505.4 hours
104.4 days
[147.4 awake days (17 hour day)]
3.5 months
[close to 5 awake months]
this doesn't include portable player plays.

i love music!
i listen to it most of the day, most of the days.
all the spectrum of genres, if it's good I give it a listen.
i yet have to find somebody that hates music.

now lets put the data above in perspective.
i registered in lastm at the end of january 2007, so i have been using it roughly a year and a half.
if i add an estimation of one more month of portable playback. since most of the time i go out by myself, go to work, etc... i am listening to music.
it adds up to 6 awake months.

6 awake months is 1/3 of the time i have been registered.
so with big estimations and only with the data of less than two years...
i listen to music a third of the time i am awake
or an average of 5 hours 20 minutes a day.

why droid isn't the answer

"If you haven't heard, droid is the new font that will drive the typography on the android platform.

currently, there is some discussion about using droid for the ubuntu default. i would be worried if this were the case, and this post will hopefully describe why i feel this way.

the standard gripes

i'd start by suggesting that changing a type without having a goal or a reason is probably the starting point. this is all standard part and parcel of my entire gripe with ubuntu design; no audience and no goal. a simple starting point, but one without a goal. why should we change the type at all?

this isn't to suggest for a second that I'm content with the typography in ubuntu. the default type in ubuntu speaks to the greater whole as being implemented without reason. it is also symptomatic of a franchise that cares extremely little about its art and design presence. look no further than the default wordmark type for further cues. this is despite the fact that someone has attempted to bring more life into the default title font."

continue reading this must-read post at troy james sobotka blog.

apple, give me my freedom back!

not too long ago I updated my ipod nano to an ipod classic, with the idea of upgrading my experience with 40 times more storage. i have already blogged how i loved using free software to run my portable audio device. to my discontent, apple had changed so much the hardware in their badly names "classic", the rockbox people would have to start the port as if it were a totally new player. which is a lot of work, and they won't be doing.

so, i am forced to use the native firmware encumbered database which only supports unfree formats (mp3 and apple lossless) and hides the files. one down for freedom haters.

i won't let the battle finish this quickly and i start using in a day to day basis libgtkpod (thanks to the developers that broke the hash key apple placed to block free usage of this product with apps other that itunes), at least i'm going to push my music in with free software. after getting all my record collection to the moment in, i'm happy, but this doesn't last much. i start trying to add the records i am buying frequently, and fails arrive. music and covers disappear sometimes when i try to update the database.

apple, i love your hardware, and that's what i bought, hardware. but i hate how you take away my freedom, forcing me to firmwares, that force me to unfree formats and syncing with unfree software. is being able to manage a portable audio player like a hard drive and browsing music through directories containing ogg or flac files that much to ask for?

apple, give me my freedom back!

guadec/akademy 2009 in gran canaria

there has already been talk about proposals for 2009 guadec/akademy. i'm going to go ahead and show my support and love for the gran canaria proposal.

i was born and raised in the tropical island of gran canaria, which is part of spain, and i've been giving a hand to the people that have done the proposal and that would organize the meeting. i'm impressed how much the local government has liked the idea and given manpower to make it awesome.

i won't sell you the islands beauty and coolness, just check the wikipedia article linked above for some "objective" information. but I must say again... so cool and so beautiful you can't imagine.

the opera house in the background is where the conference will be hosted.

my goodness my quassel

i'm doing all my instant messaging/irc with quassel... and i'm loving it.

quassel is a distributed irc client, meaning that one (or multiple) client(s) can attach to and detach from a central core that stays permanently online. like the usual combination of screen and irssi/weechat but graphical. reattaching your client will show you the session like you left it before (plus whatever happened meanwhile in your favorite channels or whoever talked to you), making communicating with the internet people while moving from home to work, from work to home, to the cafeteria, to your friends house... seamless and painfree.

if you add bitlbee to quassel, you can do all your chit chatting with this running session to which you connect and disconnect easily. bitlbee brings instant messaging to irc clients, it tunnels instant messaging traffic (jabber and all major protocols) to a virtual irc channel and virtual irc queries.

no more "connection reset by peer"

10,000 views

woohoo. i have just overpassed the 10,000 views in flickr!

more free software people photos soon.

Ubuntu People for Obama

decadence: a little less conversation...

... a little more action!

andy wingo, luis villa, havoc pennington, calum benson, jono bacon, alberto ruiz, mikkel kamstrup, rodney dawes, richard hughes, lucas rocha, thomas thurman, owen williams, christian schaller, vincent untz... they all talk about it (and i'm sure i leave people behind), and in general all of them agree. there is a need for change.

the desktop metaphor is obsolete. the objectives behind gnome 2.0 have been fulfilled, but they don't represent anymore the modern desktop needs. the gui as we know it, needs to be redone. there is a need for a new cool generation of visionaire objectives (as the old ones once were).

there already are ideas, i.e. topaz, and most of this ideas came in the wrong time, when there were no infraestructures to embrace them. now there are: clutter, compiz, cairo, pyro, telepathy, etc. what is needed, is action. plus new brainstorm sandboxes are proposed (by owen williams).

as calum benson portrays, we have to stop using this new technologies to mimic and follow behind other developments, we need to unleash their full potential, take benefit of the great community and push them to a higher level, where closed source can't reach.

the desktop only has 3 limitations: the 2 dimension nature of application windows (which eventhough clutter can change, a transition needs to be made), the 2 dimension nature of the screen (which compiz has showed us doesn't limit the desktop), and the operating system nature alberto ruiz points out (which web 3.0, packagekit and metadata developments, like music players, show us can be abstracted).

so... where are the limitations? in the project and not in the technology.

gnome needs a group of pioneers into the 3.0 world. brave people that are willing to lead, code, and experiment towards new ideas and metaphors in the desktop...

i'm in :)

pd: the blog posts thread is getting very complex and hard to track (thanks kamstrup). I propose to move the conversation to a better medium (but not stop making it public through our blogs). gnome 3 mailing list? let's sail with this new breeze of change in the air, and not let it go to waste.

hmmm... probably it's time to join planet gnome.

severed meme

one more for the last meme, this time from awesome metal freedom